The wizards responded quickly and successfully carried out my orders.
As Junior cast 'Elemental Disassembly,' she interfered with Ipian's spellcasting, forcibly downgrading his tenth-tier magic to ninth-tier.
After aligning their power levels, we countered with Dearmudin's specialty, fire magic.
Kwaah!
From Ipian's severed right neck erupted a fearsome scream, along with dark magic. It collided head-on with the fire magic jointly cast by our wizards.
The two magics appeared to antagonize each other momentarily, but soon Ipian's dark magic began to aggressively push forward.
"Look out, it's swallowing us up!"
The wizards gasped in horror as our pillar of fire seemed to be contaminated and engulfed by the darkness, pushing the point of collision backward.
I urged the wizards on.
"Keep it up, no matter what!""But the output difference is too great...!"
"Damn it! All magic users, join the joint magic! We have to hold out!"
Following my command, all heroes with magical talent participated in casting the joint spell.
Just like adding RAM when assembling a computer, connecting several people also increases efficiency, or so I understand.
I'm no expert in computers or magic, but they seem roughly similar!
'While we hold out, we just need to destroy his critical point!'
Meanwhile, the vanguard heroes had climbed onto Ipian, reaching the forehead of his middle head.
"Hrgh!"
Lucas, wrapped in the golden aura of 'Divine Descent,' delivered an enhanced 'Strike of Will' with all his might.
Crack!
With a dazzling sword light, a crack formed across the scale-like covering over Ipian's closed eye.
"Kuilan!"
"I know!"
As Lucas stepped aside, Kuilan, having regained his posture in mid-air, wrapped himself in a crimson aura and plunged downward.
"First - Heartbreaking Storm Wolf!"
Crack!
For a moment, the space seemed to distort and then swiftly returned to its original form.
Kuilan, currently the strongest on the front lines simply by his specs, had used his ultimate move, drawing on the divine powers of his race.
Moreover, this form was that of the First Generation - Wolf King Lunared.
The tremendous force caused numerous cracks to spread across the scale.
However, the scale did not shatter completely.
Kuilan pulled back his fist and stepped aside as he shouted.
"Nameless -!"
Tatatat-!
With agile steps, Nameless ran up the slanted body of Ipian and, finding her footing in mid-air, clenched the handle inside her sword sheath with her right hand.
"If you keep emitting such evil energy like this!"
She dove towards Ipian's middle eye and drew her sword in a swift motion.
Tskaaak-!
Her decisive slash, capable of cleaving anything in two, sliced through the scale without hesitation.
...Or so it seemed.
"What...?!"
Suddenly, Ipian's middle eye opened, and from it burst forth darkness, enveloping the scale like a shield... preventing it from being fully split.
"It's no use."
Flash!
The next moment, a golden light erupted from the middle eye.
"Cough!"
"Choke?!"
Lucas, Kuilan, and Nameless were thrown back, spitting blood.
Lucas and Kuilan managed to regain their posture in mid-air and landed with difficulty, while Nameless, unable to stabilize, fell downwards.
"Safe~!"
Fortunately, Evangeline was there to catch her, and Zenis was seen casting a healing spell.
Ipian no longer paid any attention to the heroes on that side and stared straight in our direction.
"The darkness has gathered enough."
The darkness emitted from his three wide-open eyes condensed into a sphere in front of his gaping mouth.
At the same time, the magic power accumulated inside his throat began to bubble fiercely.
Ipian's most powerful attack, imbued with darkness, a Breath... He seemed about to use it.
"I will plunge you into the deepest night...!"
And this was the moment I had been waiting for, the perfect chance to take him down.
"Damien-!"
I called out to Damien, my sniper in preparation behind me.
"Finish him off!"
"Yes, Your Highness."
Calmly, Damien prepared his shot.
Already transformed into a railgun, the [Black Queen]'s barrel was loaded with seven magic bullets that had merged into one in midair.
Ipian's critical point had already been damaged. Since he had resorted to his dark shield as a safety measure, that was his last line of defense.
At the very end, on top of his final shield!
We would slam in the strongest bullet we had!
"Grind it!"
As I swung my fist forward and shouted,
"My eyes..."
Damien muttered softly, staring straight into Ipian's eye.
"I see better than your eyes."
...Why am I feeling this weird sense of competition?
Boom!
With a sound like a cannon firing, Damien shot the [Black Queen] at full power.
The recoil knocked Damien back, rolling, and the other heroes who were waiting caught his body.
The magic bullet, shot like a ray of light, flew straight and accurately-
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
It shattered the darkness-made shield,
Tore through the last resisting scale,
And pierced right through the middle eye within Ipian's scale.
Boom!
It penetrated the center of Ipian's forehead and exploded out the back, flaring up.
"Cough...?!"
Ipian let out his death throes.
The sphere of darkness gathered in front of his mouth disintegrated vainly.
With the loss of his middle eye- the eye of darkness, Ipian lost control over the darkness.
Damien's magic bullet had pierced through the center of his forehead, stirred his brain into mush, and left a giant hole in the back of his head.
He swayed, unable to control the Breath he had been gathering, vomiting it out as if it were refluxing.
"Ah, uh, aah...!"
Clang...!
The magic circle floating above his right neck flickered and eventually shattered like breaking glass.
The dark magic that had been pushed right up to our wizards disappeared instantly- and in turn, the fire magic launched by our wizards pressed forward toward him.
Boom!
Ipian's huge body was instantly engulfed in tremendous flames.
Considering the fierce flames, I worried if the heroes who had approached too closely had been hurt... Fortunately, five of them were seen hastily moving away from the spot. They seemed safe.
"Oh..."
Dearmudin murmured softly as he watched the pillar of fire burning down the collapsing black dragon.
"In my life, I've never seen such beautiful flames. To create such flames, indeed I am... impressive."
"..."
Isn't this the time to praise everyone's combined strength, will, cooperation, and collective effort?
Anyway, we had shattered Ipian's greatest weakness... his critical point, and even penetrated the eye of darkness.
In doing so, we destroyed his brain by penetrating his forehead and burned the rest of his body with maximum output fire magic.
The darkness that had been emanating from various parts of Ipian's body gradually faded,
Thud...!
Engulfed in flames, Ipian's huge body staggered and then fell forward.
The wall of black flames surrounding this 'Guard Division Camp' also began to die down.
Without realizing it, I smiled.
Finally, we had defeated him.
"Everyone did great, he was a persistent one, wasn't he? But we took him down impressively..."
I paused mid-sentence.
Suddenly, I remembered the incident with Wingian. Normally, the Breath that should have been canceled was sustained and finally released solely by his transcendent hatred and will.
A chill ran down my spine.
"...No, everyone! Don't let your guard down!"
If this were a game, Ipian would definitely be dead. It was already a confirmed overkill.
But, however- this is reality.
The transcendent will of the evil dragon could far exceed my calculations.
"Do not relax your guard until his death is confirmed! Maintain battle readiness!"
And, my caution was justified.
Lying burnt, the two golden eyes on Ipian's face suddenly opened wide.
"I hate you."
Thump!
He reached out with his burning forelegs.
"Being that watches over the universe, a father cursing fate, us his imperfect children, we dreamed the forbidden dreams against heaven, defying the natural order, yet ultimately our legion's dream perished."
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Even as he fell forward, his entire body burning, his head riddled with holes spewing blood, brain matter, and darkness.
Ipian dragged his ash-turning legs, starting to crawl towards us on the ground.
"Memories of the Milky Way, the burning earth, warmth I've never felt, the split me, the spread me, the torn me, killing and killing and killing, dying and dying and dying, that's all there is."
Spewing unintelligible words without pause, even though he was certainly dying—no, perhaps already dead—I pian crawled toward us with terrifying momentum.
"Don't play with me, don't rejoice over my death, I have lived to destroy this world with my father because it's the only way to ruin your fun!"
I gritted my teeth and raised a wall.
The vanguard heroes raised their weapons and shields, while the rear heroes unleashed all kinds of restraining attacks, including magic and gunfire.
Boom! Boom! Boom...!
Ipian's body, already having lost all its normal defensive power, crumbled in an instant.
Yet, he continued to crawl toward me with a thunderous rumble, crushing and breaking.
"Why do you keep interfering without understanding the great will of my father who stands against the beings above in the sky, mortals!"
The vanguard heroes in front of him stabbed their weapons into his eyes and slashed his burning scales with their swords.
But like a broken tank, Ipian ignored all the attacks and forcibly pushed through.
"I will definitely, right here, kill you...!"
Bleeding blood and darkness from his empty, torn eye sockets—he stared straight at me.
"Guardian of humanityyyyy!"
Suddenly, my magical wall had crumbled, and the vanguard heroes who had been protecting me fell, unable to stop his blind charge.
In a panic, the Glory Knights grabbed me and dodged to the side.
But Ipian, now a veritable corpse dragon, didn't stop chasing me.
'He's already dead!'
As the Glory Knights escorted me, I ran desperately thinking,
'This is just his last bit of stubbornness! Just hold on a bit longer, and he'll collapse on his own!'
I was only half right.
It was true he was already dead and this was the evil dragon's last flailing. But the problem was the premise that 'just holding on a bit longer' was possible.
That was not the case.
Flash-!
His burning jaw gaped open, and the magic power turbulence gathered inside was aimed at me.
'A Breath?! I thought it had all scattered earlier!'
During the gathering, Ipian had fallen after being penetrated in the brain by Damien's magic bullet.
Most of the Breath he had been gathering in his throat had dispersed, but some remained intact!
"If you're going to die anyway, you could die more gracefully, really...!"
Cursing, I spread out the cloak given by Kellibey like a shield.
It was supposed to block a Breath at least once, so I was planning to somehow hold on with it.
"...?!"
Then it belatedly occurred to me.
Even if I use this cloak to stay safe.
What about the Glory Knights guarding me? And the other heroes behind me?
Could they survive a direct hit from this Breath?
Right behind me were the core dealers of the World Guardian Front. If I lose them here, there's no way to fight the Night Bringer.
"Ah, damn this game...!"
I cursed sincerely, spread Kellibey's cloak, and threw myself forward—right in front of Ipian's mouth.
"Your Highness?!"
Hecate's voice sounded in alarm from behind, but this was the best I could do.
Trusting in the protective performance of the cloak given by Kellibey, I was the one to block the Breath at the forefront.
I thought it was a gamble worth taking. If I'm lucky, the cloak will completely block the Breath, and if I'm unlucky, I'll suffer a serious injury.
The other heroes needed to defeat the Night Bringer would be safe...
I gritted my teeth.
Better I suffer the pain than them!
Flash-!
That's when it happened.
Someone darted like lightning between Ipian's mouth and me, reaching out their hand toward me.
The moment their hand touched mine,
Chrrrrrrrrrrk-!
The chain armor wrapped around their body disassembled and transferred onto me.
This armor was the [Lord of the High Tower].
And of course, the owner of this armor was...
"Really."
Dusk Bringer gave a wry smile towards me.
"Don't you know how precious your body is? You're not a child left by the water..."
I had no time to respond.
The next moment, a sunset-colored magical power like a curtain sprang from behind the Dusk Bringer who had stirred up their own bloodline and enveloped us-
And over it poured the Breath that Ipian had emitted in his last desperate struggle.
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at /MattReading